Time for Supervisors to Show Leadership : Turning Focus on Popejoy Only Clouds the Issue

It would have been helpful if some of the zeal with which the Board of Supervisors rolled up its sleeves on the question of County Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy’s job performance last week had been evident during the past six months on the larger question of bankruptcy.

The result of two hours behind closed doors seemed to be a mixed bag for patching up a testy relationship. Popejoy stayed on, but without an enthusiastic endorsement of his work and with some new requirements in his reporting arrangement. Better communication between the two parties is obviously in the county’s best interest, and worth the effort. But the conclusion also is inescapable that there was something bigger wrong in the picture.

If the board had any question about who the real target of voter anger was, then it got an education at the special meeting that day when speaker after speaker lashed out at supervisors. This was so despite the efforts of Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez and Roger R. Stanton to foster a sense of reconciliation in the aftermath of the sound rejection of the sales tax measure.

The board has had plenty of time to explore such solutions, by the way, and ought by this point to be providing the leadership. That, ironically, is a quality that has been coming in large part from Popejoy, the very person to whom the board was deflecting attention last week.

It is worth remembering that Popejoy is first and foremost a post-bankruptcy figure. He had nothing to do with creating the circumstances of the crisis, and has mostly distinguished himself by coming in at no pay, like Cincinnatus leaving his plow, and making the difficult choices as a citizen serving his community in a time of dire need. He has tried to craft ways out of the dilemma, at times with less than enthusiastic support from the board.

The resounding message of the No vote on the sales tax measure was that voters simply did not want to hand over money to the same people who put the county in the hole. That means the board itself. Some supervisors, posing as tax fighters, still didn’t seem to get the message, and perhaps were stunned by the anger at Thursday’s post-election special meeting.

There are, of course, real differences on the current board in quality of crisis leadership. Supervisor Marian Bergeson, who wasn’t there when the problems developed, has turned out to be indispensable in using her influence in Sacramento to make headway, and she realistically if reluctantly supported the only viable recovery plan on the table. At the other end of the spectrum is Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, who not only presided over bankruptcy but seemed intent on blocking recovery to save his own political hide. In between those two lie the other three supervisors, only one of whom wasn’t there when the bankruptcy took place, but each with varying levels of job performance in the recovery.

The spotlight the board put on Popejoy was only the latest attempt to deflect attention from the place where the buck finally comes to rest. Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron is long gone. Likewise, the county has let go administrative people connected with the bankruptcy, and a host of county employees who had nothing to do with it.

Having blamed others for the bankruptcy, having blamed Popejoy for the stalling recovery, some on the board now look next to the citizens themselves for answers. The ultimate absurdity might be this scenario: The supervisors who have been so unhappy with Popejoy turn next to the electorate in the search for someone to blame.